Men in the Classroom

The MenTeach website reported on a German study comparing the behavior of male and female ECE workers in classrooms with children between three and six years of age:

"With regard to the formal professional qualities of communication and activity, the rating of the behaviour of the female and male professionals in the individual situations yields no relevant gender effects.  Thereby, also, the attachment theoretical assumption, that women interact in a more empathic attachment-oriented way, and men interact rather in a challenging exploration-oriented way, related to the ECE workers in our sample, cannot be confirmed.  With this finding one could conclude that, with regard to central professional standards in dealing with children, male and female professionals do not differ.

"That does not mean that, in dealing with children, the gender of the ECE workers does not play a role.  At least, indications can be found that, dependent on gender, different activities are carried out with the children, and different content areas served.  This is confirmed by gender-specific differences concerning the selection of material, and the resulting products.  Over all, the influence of the gender of the children proves to be greater than that of the gender of the ECE workers.  Amongst the professionals, it was notable that the women tend to treat girls and boys more equally, whereas the men tend to adjust their behaviour more to the gender of the child."

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